Coming up trumps

" Ryan Gregson competing at the Australian All Schools Championships at Homebush. Inset: Ryan with his medals.

WHEN 12yearold Ryan Gregson took to the athletics arena four years ago, it was on the cards that he may turn out to be something special& and the cards proved to be exactly right.

In nothing short of an amazing last 16 months, the now 16yearold, who will be a Year 12 student at the Illawarra Sports School in 2007 - has established himself as both an exceptional cross country runner and the best 1500m and 3000m competitor for his age in Australia.

This was proved beyond doubt at the recent Australian All Schools Championships at Homebush when the Kembla Joggers and Illawarra Academy of Sport member took out both these events in the U17 age category against the best of the best.

Ryan was over the moon with these results as it was totally unexpected as he is predominately a distance runner. A few days later he again performed brilliantly by finishing third at the prestigious 3000m Zatopek Classic in Melbourne in the much higher U20 age group in a time of 8.19secs, which qualified the former hockey rep to contest the U20 World Cross Country Championships in Kenya next March and the World U18 Track and Field Titles in the Czech Republic in July.

Whilst in Melbourne, Ryan was thrilled to meet his idol Craig Mottram and recently has taken the opportunity to run with another idol, dual Olympic marathon champion Kerryn McCann.

Ryan Gregon's ultimate aims are to win an Olympic Gold medal and make a career out of athletics. The way he is going, that is again quite on the cards.